(These are notes from memory. Covering what happens immediately after the Train Robbery Session Notes (see previous entry) and through the attack The Boys make on Bill Cooley’s men as they raced to Tucson. I think this happens over mutiple play sessions.)
…having robbed the train, The Boys prepare to leave. The Boys: Jack Kolrath; Louis Toadvine; Jobe Lakamp and Shady McCoy. But just before they leave, one of them spies a head ducking down from a window in the caboose. They carefully investigate, finding a caboose man and a small boy.
After some discussion with all, Louis ends up shooting the caboose man dead. The small boy wets his pants and is dressed in the caboose man’s overalls. The child is taken with the gang as they ride southwest into the hills.
There, Jack and Louis hide $4,000 in two separate $2k stashes in the hills. They keep the remaining $1,000 from Cooley’s payroll for walking around money.
The group gives the boy a story to tell what happened on the train and send him on his way to Billings, where he is from. He’s given enough food and water to make the journey home.
The Boys then drive to Dry Gulch, where they drink at the Hard Knocks Saloon & Brothel. Through Billy Rise, they find out that William Cooley paid a visit to the newly widowed Mattie Townsend and again demanded to buy her mine. She refused. But Cooley doesn’t care. He tells Mattie it doesn’t matter. Because he’s already sent a group of riders to the Arizona territory capitol to file paperwork to claim the mine as his own. These papers are false, of course.
Mattie is crushed. Despondent, she doesn’t know what to do.
Jack, Louis and Shady also learn from Billy Rise that the riders left for Tucson two days ago. The Boys swing into action and say they’ll try to help. The saddle up and immediately pursue the riders, pushing their horses hard and fast.
After five days, and after being attacked by three chupacabra en route, they come upon the riders just as they settle down for the night. The Boys see what looks like three men. Jack and Shady take an elevated position several hundred feet from the campsite. Louis moves silently through the night, from boulder to boulder, until all are in position. Jack shoots one of the men with his lever rifle, instantly killing him. Louis attacks.
A night gun battle ensues. Cooley’s men are unsure of just where the shots are coming from. So they try to leave. But are eventually gunned down by Jack, Louis and Shady as they try to escape.
The bodies are searched. And on an exceptionally well dressed body, they come across some legal-looking documents. The documents are forgeries, designed to look like the deed to Mattie’s property. The Boys also find a trussed up man, who identifies himself as Ezra Greely. Ezra was on his way to Dry Gulch to deliver some money to a family member when Cooley’s men came across him. They took him prisoner, thinking they could ransom him later. Ezra tells The Boys everything he knows, including the names of the men The Boys just killed: Vern Holtz and Noyes Briscoe. The well turned out gentleman was Vint Cooley, Colonel Bill Cooley’s son.
With Ezra joining them, Jack, Louis and Shady continue the trip to Tucson. When they arrive, they begin the process to formally draw up legal papers for the Townsend Mine (with the proper owner, Mattie Townsend).
The Boys head back to Dry Gulch. On the way, they come across a stagecoach being robbed. The Boys quickly dispatch the two highwaymen. (But not before Ezra tries to blend into the surrounding countryside by pretending to be a cactus.)
And from the stagecoach emerges Catherine Cooley, Colonel (retired) William Cooley’s daughter. She is grateful to The Boys for foiling the robbery.
Catherine is visiting her family from college. She attends the University of Louisiana (precursor to Telane) in New Orleans. Now that the stagecoach driver was killed in the attempted robbery, she needs a ride home. And asks The Boys to give them a ride to her parent’s ranch, which is not too far away.
The Boys are suspicious of this. With Shady, they quietly discuss their options. A plan is hatched. Shady, alone, drives the stagecoach to an area within sight of the ranch and then leaves Catherine to finish the trip.
Jack and Louis head to Dry Gulch. There, they learn the sheriff of Liberty is investigating the train robbery. Mattie is pleased to see them. As is Billy Rise, who has been spending a lot of time with Mattie. While Mattie is grateful to hear the mine is now legally hers, she is missing seed money to begin the mine. The Boys end up buying a share of Mattie’s mine with $500. Using his legal expertise, Jack documents the transaction.
Shady joins Jack and Louis at Hard Knocks after ensuring Catherine got home safely.
After a while, The Boys are approached by Wade Hardinger. He explains he’s the right hand man to William Cooley, a retired US army colonel and well-known landowner. Bill Cooley needs a shipment of mining supplies delivered to his brother, Wyatt Cooley, in Privilegio. Are the boys looking to earn a little extra money? Wade gives them $100 and says the other $100 will be paid by Wyatt upon receipt of the mining equipment. Wade offers to go with the men, but The Boys refuse. Wade takes them out to the supplies, already loaded up on a single crate in a buckboard wagon. The crate weighs about 300 pounds with a sturdy lock. And Wade is adamant the men are not to open it. Just get it to the center of town in Privilegio at noon in two day’s time.
The Boys accept the bargain and ride out…
Dry Gulch Bugle 